Author Archive

“If you’re going to make a mistake, make it going forward.” That’s the best piece of advice I have ever been given as a rider. Whatever pickle you may find yourself in on a horse, leg is usually the answer. I found myself in a slight predicament on cross-country at Virginia Horse Trials in the […]

Ah, the course walk. The first time out, we are generally just there to figure out where we’re going, and perhaps question our sanity (“Why? Why would anyone gallop a horse up to something like this and jump over it? I need help…”). The […]

Pirate running Intermediate at The Fork, April 2014 There are no words to adequately express how I feel about Pirate’s comeback. It wasn’t just a second chance; it was God giving me my life back, against all odds. I love my family and friends fiercely, but Pirate is my world. That horse is the love […]

There is nothing like a hack in the autumn. To much of the population, it’s hot cider, sweaters, and all things pumpkin that signify the start of fall, but to me, it’s the sound of leaves crunching under my horse’s hooves, seeing his breath that first chilly morning of the season. And this year, on […]

Pirate has a huge fan club around the barn; he is the world’s best babysitter. It is surreal the way a moment can change a life. It just doesn’t seem possible. You take your beloved horse on a hack up the road one afternoon, and suddenly it’s his last. In an instant, your world is […]

I am “that girl” during Christmastime – you know, the one annoyingly obsessed with the holiday, who insists on wearing red & green and buying a tree as soon as the calender switches to December. The second a local radio station I never otherwise listen to switches over to 24/7 Christmas music, it’s all I […]

Sometimes, I feel remarkably motivated to sit down and write a blog. Then, after a couple of lines, I realize it’s a beautiful morning, and I really can’t stand another moment in the house. This happens during the spring and fall more often than any other time of the year, when I have lots of […]

I’m fairly certain that, as Pirate watched every other horse BUT him load up onto the trailer at some point over the spring and summer, he was starting to lose his patience. Yes, he was ridden every day, but it was never more than a hack and a light trot-set, and this isn’t REAL riding […]

If life itself is a game of chance, this sport make us all stellar players. What better example of risk and reward than, say, galloping a horse at speed to a solid fence and making it safely to the other side? There are about a million things that could go wrong, and about as many that you […]

I’m convinced the sky is never quite as blue as it is in November. There’s just this brilliant quality to it, one you don’t quite see in the South’s hazy summers. It makes me wonder if The Avett Brothers (my favorite band for the past 7+ years since I met them at The Fork HT […]

There’s something about that week in mid-September that signifies the end of summer for me. It’s always felt as if I leave summer behind when I head to the American Eventing Championships, that during that week the seasons change and I come home to autumn. Yes, there’s the obvious – temperatures begin to fall, days […]

C’mon, you guys know that line out of an old Willie Nelson song, right? “Nothing lasts forever but old Fords, and a natural stone…” Well, I have no diamonds to talk about, unless you count the rhinestones on Pirate’s fancy dressage browband made by Momma Briggs, but I DO have an old Ford F350 whose odometer currently sits […]

About Kelsey

Kelsey is an upper level event rider from Charlotte NC. She currently competes at the CCI** level on The Gentleman Pirate, a 12-year-old Thoroughbred gelding she purchased at the racetrack in 2006 and brought along herself. Together the two have an impressive record, despite Pirate breaking his neck in 2013, an injury that was supposed to keep him from ever being ridden again. He had a miracle recovery and they plan to move up to Advanced in the near future, after recent success at the Intermediate/two-star level.

Kelsey as spent the last 12 years running a boarding, training & lesson business in south Charlotte, with two lovely barns convenient to both Waxhaw and Ballantyne in Indian Land SC/Marvin NC. She and Pirate have recently relocated to the Middleburg VA area to train, but she has kept both barns in Charlotte, where Kelsey will continue to teach regular clinics. She is also available for lessons in the Northern VA area.

Kelsey accepts horses in training in Virginia, her specialty being breaking youngsters and moving them up through the levels, as well as retraining horses off the track. She is also a licensed steeplechase trainer and attends as many races as her eventing schedule will allow.